Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians

Lambert, Michael (Joseph Jules)

Lambert, Michael (Joseph Jules), drummer, composer; b. Quebec City, Canada, 24 October 1959. His grandfather, Omer L?tourneau (1891- 1983) was born in Quebec City and studied organ with Louis Vierne in Paris in 1913. His spouse was Maria Coulombe. They got married in 1915. Maria passed away in 1977. Together they had 12 children, many of whom became professional musicians. Many of the grand children became professional musicians as well. Michel's mother is Rachel Letourneau, singer, vocal teacher, born in 1929. She married Jules Lambert, psychiatrist. Jules was born in 1928 and passed away in 1999. They had five children, Jean, Andre, Danielle, Denis and Michel, all born between 1953 and 1959 and all involved with music in various degrees. Michel Lambert married Jeannette Schwager, singer, poet, improviser, writer, filmmaker in 1990. She was born in Leiden, Holland in 1965. They have two young sons, Jerome (b. 2000) and Theo (b. 2003). Jeannette has a brother, Reg, born in 1962. He is a jazz guitarist, lives in Toronto and currently works with George Shearing.

Lambert is the descendant of a virtual dynasty of classical musicians in Quebec. He spent a good part of his youth between the Petit S'minaire and the Conservatoire de Musique de Quebec, 1974 - 77, in the city of his birth. First a classical percussion student with professor Roger Juneau, his fascination with jazz drums and composition inspired him to pursue his musical education at Berklee College of Music in Boston, 1979 - 1982 where his professors included John La Porta, Herb Pomeroy, and Greg Hopkins. He won a few Berklee scholarships and later on, Canada Council grants helped him to study with Charlie Haden in Los Angeles in 1983, to attend the Banff Jazz Workshops in 1984, to participate in contemporary music workshops in Paris also in 1984 where he saw Boulez and Xenakis, to study with David Liebman in New York in 1985 and Misha Mengelberg in Amsterdam in 1986/87.

Since the mid 80's, different projects have taken him to Europe, across Canada, the U.S. and Asia, at different festivals like the Berliner Jazztreff, Jazzfest Wien, l'Europa Jazz Festival du Mans, Pori Jazz, Internationales New Jazz Moers, Tampere Jazz Happening, Jakarta Jazz Festival, Birmingham Jazz Festival, Festival Internazionale Jazz In Sardegna, JVC Jazz Festival, Guelph Jazz Festival, Festival International de Jazz de Montr?al and many others. In recent years, he has worked with artists like Gary Burton, Pat LaBarbera, Dewey Redman, Kenny Wheeler, Bobo Stenson, Uri Caine, Jason Moran, Misha Mengelberg, Milcho Leviev and Barre Phillips. On the Toronto scene from '87 to '94 and as a resident of Montreal since '98, he has worked across the country with most of Canada's leading jazz artists like Herbie Spanier, Sonny Greenwich and Don Thompson. He currently works with Jeannette Lambert, Dave Young, Reg Schwager, Wray Downes, Phil Dwyer, Michael Stuart, Michel Donato, Pieree Ct? and Fran ois Carrier among others. He leads his own projects and works on international collaborations. In 1998, with a grant from the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Quebec, he was resident of the Studio du Quebec in New York City. Ten years earlier, in '88, he composed his "Journal des Episodes, 366 Episodes pour orchestre symphonique". As a finalist in the WSO composers competition in 1992, 33 excerpts from the work received a World Premiere performance at the first Winnipeg New Music Festival by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Bramwell Tovey. His orchestral works also include "Le Passant, Triptyque pour Orchestre Symphonique", composed in 1992. A reduction of the score "l'Ombre du Passant" was premiered at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto by the Aitken/ Tureski Duo, in '93.

Lambert has been a regular guest at Contemporary Music Festivals. At the Parry Sound, Festival of the Sound, concerts include several performances with musical director James Campbell, with artists like Alain Trudel, the british Allegri String Quartet or the National Academy Orchestra conducted by Boris Brott. At the Orford Festival, he was asked by director Rafi Armanian, to work first with David Baker, then with Phil Nimmons. He brought a few of his own groups at the Festival International du Domaine Forget in Charlevoix. He returned to perform his music at the WSO New Music Festival in 1995 and contributed the following year to some of the compositions and orchestral arrangements for a concert of the Dave Young trio with Orchestra London. As a composer and band leader, over 50 of his jazz related compositions have been broadcast nationally. His compositions for Lonely Universe on CMP records have been broadcast worldwide. When he brought his quartet to the Ontario Science Centre for CJRTSound of Toronto Jazz Series, critics wrote "...a challenging hour of unusual fare created by a masterly drummer" and "Lambert pushes the Jazz series to the edge."

Lambert spent most of '95 and '96 in Paris and Nice pursuing his work in music and visual arts. He completed "Ex-Voto", a series of 12 oil paintings that, later on, won him a commission (original oil panel paintings) from the Canada Council to illustrate the 4 cd box set, a compilation of Canadian music to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. He also produced a series of large canvasses in New York City, in '98. He has illustrated and conceptualized several cd covers.

Awards:
Fables and Dreams, with the Dave Young / Phil Dwyer Quartet on Justin time records won the 1993 Canadian JUNO Award while "Compassion" for the label Naxos with Fran ois Carrier trio won another Canadian JUNO Award, this time in 2001.